Manufacturing and assembly lines may be loaded and unloaded by robotic devices. The robotic devices may pick up work pieces from a fixture or holding device and load them into an operation in a press, a welder, or the like. Between operations, a robot may unload the part and place it on another fixture.
A variety of different parts may be processed on the same manufacturing line. The parts processed on a line may have different shapes that require differently shaped templates on the fixtures to support the parts. Manufacturing lines may be changed over relatively frequently to accommodate different part styles that have different shapes and require different fixture locating points. The templates retained by the template holder brackets must be locked in place. Properly locating fixture templates minimizes the risk of damage to the parts as a result of the parts being placed upon improperly located fixture templates.
Some prior art fixture templates were secured to brackets by means of two pins that are inserted through a wall of the bracket and into corresponding holes in the base of the template. With this approach, workers may inadvertently fail to insert one or both pins leaving the template in an unstable condition. The pins are generally removed completely from the bracket and set aside until a new template is to be secured to the bracket. The pins may be misplaced or lost when they are removed from the bracket.
In a modification of the template, a slot may be provided in the template base that receives a pin that is permanently secured to one end of the bracket. The template base is then secured by inserting a removable pin into the side of the bracket and the template base to hold the template base in place. This approach permits one of the removable pins that is generally required to hold the template in the bracket to be eliminated, but still leaves one removable pin that is required to lock the template into the bracket.
Applicants' invention is directed to solving the above problems relating to fixture templates that are secured to brackets by one or more removable pins.